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There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924013539766 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Words by the Wayside - By James Rhoades London Chapman Gf Hall, Ltd. 1915 Contents PAGE Sovereignty i Coronation Ode 3 The Mirror of Spring 10 An Epitaph 12 Lips and Eyes 13 To Haileybury 14 Haileybury College Jubilee 15 A Triolet 16 Dives Up To Date 17 For Freedom of Speech 18 Flowers and Birds 19 To a Certain Doctor 20 In April 21 The Spring of Life 22 Molly's Folly 23 " Robin " 24 Among the Hills 25 Matins 26 " O Fortunatos Nimium, Sua si Bona Norint 27 To the Garden of My Soul 28 In the Medici Chapel 29 At Perugia \ From the Author's " Little 30 At Assisi / Flowers of St. Francis " 31 A Vicarage Garden 32 Life's Twilight 34 At the Omar Khayydm Club : I 35 At the Omar Khayydm Club : II 36 My Dachshund 37 "She" 38 "Buss-Dhu" 39 The Heart of the Thorn 40 vi CONTENTS PAOB From Sully Prudhomme 41 Winter 42 The Message of the Christmas Bells 43 The Christmas Message 44 An Easter Message 45 The Way of Life 46 Un Seul £tre vous manque, et tout est d^peupl6 48 To Venice 49 Christmas, 1898 50 Aurea ^tas 52 Heavens 54 A Coxmtry Song for Children 56 Loveliness in Miniature 58 Of Janet, aged 5 60 Earth's Message to the Old 62 Poeta Suburbanus 64 Wedding Rhymes 66 A 70th Birthday 75 Christmas Rose 77 To Friends in the North 78 Castello di Urio, Lago di Como 79 " Non, si male nunc, et olim Sic erit." 82 At Riva 83 S.E.R.T. 84 Time's Masterpiece 85 Catharine Gladstone 86 General Symons 87 Sonnet Introductory to " the History of the Victoria Cross " 88 Stars 89 Privates of the Line G. W. Steevens Ambulance Heroes A Pathetic Incident 90 91 92 93 By the Graves on the Veldt 94 CUJNliiJNlb VU PAOB " Romane Memento . . . Parcere subjectis " 95 The Return of Lord Roberts 96 The Return of the C.I.V. 98 Queen Victoria 99 To Lord Kitchener 100 Frederick Temple loi A Welcome to the King of Italy 102 To President Loubet 104 Scotland's Greeting to King Edward VII., 1903 105 L'Entente Cordiale • 106 Sir Henry Irving 107 Death of William Terriss 108 Japan and the Treaty of Portsmouth 109 Queen Alexandra's Homecoming iio H.M. III To EUen Terry 112 Joachim 113 Baroness Burdett Coutts 114 Martin Sperling 115 To Garibaldi 116 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 118 To the King at Rugby 119 General Wolfe 120 The Death of King Edward the Vllth 121 To Florence Nightingale 122 Holman Hunt 123 J.CS. 124 A Lesson from the " Titanic " 125 General Booth 126 Coronation Day, June 22nd, 1911 127 On The Declaration of War 128 The Charge of the 9th Lancers 129 The Marseillaise 130 Selected Pageant Poems 133-152 NOTE The contents of this volume, which forms the third series of the Author's shorter poems, are with a few exceptions collected from "The Times," "The Fort- nightly Review," " The Speaker," " The Westminster Gazette," "The Daily News." and "The Court Journal," and are here reprinted by the kind permission of the respective Editors. Sovereignty When erst in Jewry stood the King of Kings, For mockery robed in purple, crowned with thorn. Glory beyond the pomp of earthly things Broke through the mean disguise of human scorn : And power that stoops, and weakness that is strength. And sovereignty, no more a splendid sin. Flashed on a world bewUdered, taught at length To seek the signs of honour from within. So kingly service earned the right to reign, And lords of earth who claim the bended knee. Throned in their State, might nevermore disdain The burden-bearers of the world to be. Envy them not : amid the glittering show How irketh kings their greatness who shall ken ? Never alone, what loneliness they know. What yearning for the simple lives of men ! Under the search-light of the world's vast eye. That sweeps his path, each trivial act to scan — Nay, deep into his secret soul would pry — He must be manful who shall play the man. Who, bare to every censure random-hurled. No crowd to screen him, can erect and free Stand out against the sky-line of the world. Invulnerable in his integrity. 2 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Can in great issues serve or sway the State, Lord of his own, yet of his own the thrall, And, set without the harriers of debate. Through the loud clamour of the Council-hall, Can yet a nation's nobler heart-beat hear. Arm for the right, or, touched with human woe. Trim Mercy's trembling balance with a tear — Nor self-mistrust nor self-elation know. Spare then your flattery, speed them with your prayers ; And here in London, while the joy bells ring. While the crowds gather, and the trumpet blares. Cry we " God strengthen, as God save, the King ! " For though with heaven and loyal hearts to aid. This weight of Empire may be bravely borne. Purple is weary wear, when all is said. The crown, though golden, edged with inward thorn. August, igo2. CORONATION ODE Coronation Ode {For August gth, 1902). Lo ! As from Winter, Spring, As out of darkness, day. As earth and everything — The world's old way — Leaps to regeneration from decay. So from the corpse-like chrysalis of grief Doth sunny joy take wing ; So to an orphaned people's travailing At last relief. Now all the long-pent fountains of the land Break forth and sing ; Changed is our bitter bread By time's sweet leaven ; The streets breathe music, gaily garlanded ; The loud-tongued steeples swing ; While beneath other stars, on many a strand Sea-severed, but by love of England spanned As with a rainbow, myriads gathering From the four winds to the four winds of Heaven Acclaim, acclaim the crowning of the King. No trivial Act rehearsing in men's sight. Moves the great pageant on : It is the Mystery of a nation's might ; It is the soul of ages that are gone. Which clad in glittering hues. And to the eye of day Flaunting, but inly glorified, pursues A path more sacred than the Sacred Way, To loftier heights Capitoline, And a more lasting sovereignty than thine. WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE O mighty Rome ! For thou full many a dome To many a god didst build. But at the last, with wantonness fulfilled, To Wealth and Pride : Whereby that puissant spirit, which from the womb Thy birth-right was, within thee sank and died : Building to these, thou buildedst thine own tomb, But he shall find, who seeks. That ever, from of old. Through failure and backslidings manifold. With inborn virtue graced. Nor utterly by love of wealth debased. Keen, when oppression speaks. The cause to try. More nobly none. Humane in victory. To freedom and to justice — those twin peaks — Britain hath upward won. Scion of Alfred, what a realm is thine ! A universe beside his petty sway ! What ocean breaks not on some isle or shore That doth thy rule obey ? On whose vast bounds Hyperion in a day Cannot, for all his haste, make shift to shine, But onward posting finds them still before ! Through seas asleep Round hah a world thy bitted lightnings leap : Who shall confine thee, who shall say thee nay. When, dragon-like, on some dread errand sent. In adamantine scales armipotent, Thy thunder-breathing warders daunt the deep ? Thine from the Arctic to Vancouver's Isle, Thine east to Labrador, CORONATION ODE 5 From the sky-shouldering Himalayan steep Southward, to where Tasmanian waters snule In many a sandy bay. And that vast Commonwealth of States ^But stay ! Idly, methinks, we boast Thy power from sea to sea, from coast to coast ; If this indeed be all, all is not well : If in the dawn of doing it befell. While others slumbered, or stretched limbs to rise, England rose early and made haste to build. Can this alone exalt us to the skies ? Is this Thy sceptre's greatness ? Then how small was his Whose fame the world a thousand years hath filled. Yea, and for yet a thousand will not wane. Who shared his parcelled England with the Dane ! Nay, but, O King, thou knowest who wears of right The robe of majesty Must inward of the Eternal Counsels be. And of their Order Knight ; Fearless, or but of flatterers afraid ; Whose favour to men's conscience is a spur. Whose wrath a blade Keen as Excalibur ; Who, day by day remembering to be great. Arrays his soul, grown weary of the weight. In wise humility ; Bending from his high place to serve the State, As Honour's self immaculate. Master of all, God's thraU. E'en such a sovereignty of soul was hers Who now in love looks down on thee. WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE And with maternal smile Watches, the while Earth's mightiest empire in God's name confers Sceptre and crown on thee — Crown that she wore, And sceptre that she bore. To her bequeathed In ageless honour wreathed. And now Thrice consecrated from her hand and brow. Nor dimmed by distance, or less pure, appears That august spirit, who left the throne forlorn. And for long years Turned the sweet waters of her life to tears, Her diadem to thorn. If to be good is to be great, No victor-potentate Of east or west That name hath worthier won, Than he, whose benediction now doth rest On thee, his son. These hail thee from afar, Bright luminaries that nevermore can set In memory's heaven. But, close beside thee yet. With undimmed radiance shines. Amid the circling signs That sprinkle life's dark firmament with Ught, Thy Morning-Star. No sun-reflecting, moon-cold satellite. But self -resplendent, may her gracious ray, To glad thee, still above the horizon stay — In this than Alfred happier, to thy gain Sharing a peaceful empire with the Dane ! CORONATION ODE 7 What sudden silence holds the gazing crowd, A moment since so loud ? The air grows dense With forms impalpable to mortal sense : Dim presences about us we divine — Husbands and sons, who from the shores of strife To sire and wife Returned not, but of that deep anod5me Drank, and became A memory and a name : The storm-voiced trumpet breathes a tenderer tone. And a great heart-thrill shakes yon armed line : For here about thee, bone of England's bone, Upstand the living walls that guard thy throne. Our home-bred heroes, and amongst them who. Brave as the giant-brood. Storming not heaven but hell. Beneath that sultry glare The myriad-hissing hidden death withstood. Did what a man may do. And dared what men may dare. And faltered not, and, mute as those that fell. Of their own doing have no word to tell. Ah ! if we, too, be mute. It is that strong emotion cannot reach The folding gates of speech. But tears the timely utterance will dispute : Yet the heart utters what no ear hath heard. The still unspoken word We may not raise From the deep wells of gratitude and praise. And here from far away. To crown thy crowning-day. Behold the men of our own race and tongue. 8 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Pegrless of heart and deed, Who in our country's need As sons did aid her, soul to kindred soul Turning, as turns the needle to the Pole, Or'.-as Pacific currents, southward swung. Past Valparaiso, past Magellan borne. Rounding the Horn, Stream upward by Fuego : even so To her, to the one Mother, whence we sprung. Their hearts went homing, drawn from long ago. Nor fewer, nor less fain With honour to renown thee, in thy train. From realms allied. Ambassador and princely delegate Of Kaiser and of King, or Sovereign State, In marshalled order ride — S37mbols of peace inviolate. Which our sons' sons shall see. When o'er the nations' face Envy in sullen mood Hath ceased to brood. And race with race To nobler ends united, sane and free. Build up the great World-Commonwealth to be. Peace ! they are past : and lo ! within the shrine The King, the Queen, Kneeling between Those buried heroes of his glorious line ! Let us, too, kneel, and say " Not only, and not most, with might to war. Or with his realm's increase, But with uplifted people, but with peace — Peace which at last, at last CORONATION ODE 9 Shall still the trumpet-blast — Crown him, we cry Thee, that all kindreds may Laud him and love, who dwell beneath his star ; — But with fulfilment of the task begun By his far-travelled son. More close to bind Our closely-knit communion, kind with kind ; — But with beneficent strength Which shall at length — As in his royal heart the kindling ray Now quickens into day — Dawn on the sunless brotherhoods of men, And humanise the home, and purge the den, And stay the wing'd battalions of disease : With the pure lustre of such gracious things — Regalia from thy spirit-palaces — Crown him, All-Father, who art King of Kings, Crown him with these ! " 10 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Mirror of Spring When hyacinths the wood-ways through Spill over into pools of blue, Ajid on the grassy slope have laid Their mantle of the sky-roof made. When meadow-farers' feet stir up The gold-dust of the buttercup, And daisy-drifts the livelong day Make every field a milky way With myriads that out-star the night ; When the wide earth in one delight Laughs upward to the laughing skies. And feathered folk make melodies ; When orchard-boughs in apple-blow Turn shower and sun to rosy snow. And all the chestnut-lamps are lit. And bird and beast have joy of it : When laughter lurks in hazel eye. And lads grow bolder, maids more shy. While crazy limbs forget to ache, Crept forth the sunny air to take ; When cuckoo calls, and banks are gay. And hedge-scent heavy with sweet may — O heart, put off thy winter-cheer. For Spring, for Spring, at last is here ! II. What comfort ? Can she bring us back The smile we miss, the arms we lack. Or we for her sweet sake forget The desolation, the slow fret THE MIRROR OF SPRING ii That undermines all happiness ? Ah ! could the eye pierce inward, yes ; Ah ! might the radiance of the Spring But lire our dull imagining To feel that flower and stream and star But tokens of the Eternal are Hid in our heart of heart ; that each Hath soul-immensities that reach Far down beneath these shadowy dreams To that which is, through that which seems. Where those enfranchised spirits shine Who, seeing, are themselves divine. And, made immortal, have their part And portion with the pure in heart — That such their semblance, such their voice. Such rapture doth their soul rejoice — Then in this vital ecstasy Of earth and air we too might see. As in a mirror, faint and pale. The Life that is behind the Veil. 12 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE An Epitaph These bones, this dust, were once (believe who can) A living man : What lived within this dust (believe who will) Is living still. These bones shall leap and walk another day, (Believe who may) And, with belief. Who may, will, can, go soothe some mourner's grief. LIPS AND EYES 13 Lips and Eyes O THOSE lips. And the pert young pout o' them ! Red rose hips Are but pale, I vow, to them : Yet little bliss You'll reap, I doubt, o' them : Ask one kiss. And No drops out o' them. O those eyes. And the restless rove o' them ! Love's dart flies From the bows bent over them — Dart upon dart. No shield to cover them ! My fond heart Fell dead for love o' them. 14 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Haileybury O School, beloved, like some old fairy-tale Rife with the haunting charm of vanished hours. Who now a nymph appearest, flushed with flowers And serenaded of the nightingale, Now as some Spartan mother stem and pale. Pointing to death for duty ! all our powers Are dedicate to thee ; thy name is ours ; We are thy children who here bid thee hail. Living or dead, one host from land and sea Gathered, men famous, men who toiled obscure, Or fought for country, priests, and poets pure — Thy hand, thy star controlled them. O should we Drift aimless of the end, vouchsafe to be At once our pilot and our Cynosure ! HAILEYBURY COLLEGE JUBILEE 15 Haileybury College Jubilee Texite virtutis, suholes mea, texite telant. She stood beside the loom of Life, and said, " Weave, O my children ! " and they wove her there A battle-banner, shaping it four-square With many a dark and many a flashing thread Drawn from the spools of Time : the shuttle sped, Blending brave effort, hearts that soared in prayer. Faith, failure, triumph, courage in despair. As still hands living caught it from hands dead. So travailed they while fifty years went by, Till worthy worship was the thing they wove. And perfumed o'er ^th lavender of love. And now, " O Mother mine, and mine," they cry — For the web frays not, and the colours hold — " Thy glorious ensign to the winds unfold ! " i6 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE A Triolet Nothing in the world so sweet As the first white violet Hidden in its coy retreat ! Sweet as love when lovers meet, Sweet as ghosts of love that greet Lovers who have never met ! Nothing in the world so sweet As the first white violet ! DIVES UP TO DATE 17 Dives Up To Date ^ Dives of old was damned for heeding not Poor Lazarus at his palace-gate who lay : Not to be rich, but ruthless, was his blot ; How gained his ill-spent riches who shall say ? Our Dives doth his wealth from beggars wring— The hire of dens where scarce a beast would bed- So not himself but others likening To Him who had not where to lay his head. i8 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE For Freedom of Speech If right the cause, no counter-challenge fear. If wrong, the sterner foe, the truer friend : Free-judged, thy rightness will the more appear. Or swift repentance prove the saner end : For the loose shafts of slander — ^let them fly ; Justice stands scathless in her panoply^ ^ FLOWERS AND BIRDS , 19 Flowers and Birds Ake flowers the very thoughts of God Made visible to bless ? If so it be, happy ye Who such a faith confess. As led by April blossom-crowned Ye roam o'er vale and hill. With every here a cowslip crowned. And there a daffodil ! Are the birds' songs but jets of joy From the eternal Bliss ? If it be true, happy few With such a faith as this. As thrilled by many a feathered throat Ye roam o'er hills and vales. With every now the cuckoo's note. And then the nightingale's ! 20 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To a Certain Doctor " I'm only a doctor," is your cry, " Concerned with the body's ills and maims, But witless of art or poesy, And lost to the spirit's finer aims." Ay, only a hand by hundreds blest, A heart that has ached for all save self, A brain racked ever to find them rest, A soul whose riches are scorn of pelf. In vain we argue ; the theme is old : Some men love horses, some singing birds ; But, e'en if the poet's song ring gold. Shall deeds that are gold weigh less than words ? You waived the pleasure, and wooed the strife. Of thorns, not roses, have made your bed ; You longed for the lovely side of life. And fought with the terrible instead — Longed sore, but never had time to give. Till now it is all too late, you say : So be it : why, man, the life you live Is one long poem from day to day. IN APRIL 21 In April In April, with love elate The cuckoo-bird called his mate. Cuckoo ! And murmuring some fond name, Colin with face aflame Whispered across the gate To you. No heart but was heaved and stirred At sound of the babbling bird. Cuckoo : But, sweet though his herald-cry Floating o'er field and sky. Sweeter was CoUn's word To you. 22 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Spring of Life I WANDERED long in lonely ways. Till on my path she flashed and stood With winsome air and haunting gaze, A very May of maidenhood. Soft winds athwart my spirit blew. The frozen pulse began to beat. And slowly in my heart I knew That love is sweet. Then sudden to my lips there came The all-awakening word divine ; I whispered it, I breathed her name, She raised her gentle eyes to mine ; I saw them dim with tender doubt And virginal imagining ; And all my wintry heart cried out The Spring ! the Spring ! MOLLY'S FOLLY 23 Molly's Folly Molly from the milking comes In the sweet May weather ; Someone meets her in the lane. And they walk together. Someone has a sheepish look As of love inside him ; Molly turns her face away, Frowns, as if to chide him. Someone has a shaky voice : " Once you seemed to love me ; Molly, won't you try again — Think a little of me ? " At the gate she stops ; an arm Round her waist is stealing ; Molly shrinks and makes no sign ; Is she lost to feeling ? When her cottage-home she gains- Molly sure a goose is — Of the tears that drown her heart She unlocks the sluices : " Why, O cruel tongue," she cries, So with silence flout him ? Who's to tell him, if not you, 1 should die without him ? " 24 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE " Robin " What do you make of it, Robin the red ? Earth, wind, and water say summer is dead : Summer is dead, they sigh, wailing forlorn ; You — ^you make mirth of it, perched on the thorn ! Leaves in air battling with armies unseen. Mowed down by myriads rain gold on the green ; Chimney-throats roaring and forest-tops curled, Shriek " This is winter born into the world." Storms rock his cradle, and death strews his way. You — ^you make sport of it, perched on the spray ! Armed with his icy breath, killing he goes ; Look at yon withered skull, once 'twas a rose ! All the wild forest-pipes cease, stricken dumb ; Hushed the lark's carol, and hushed the bee's hum ; Stark lies the river, and mute stands the mill ; You — ^you make songs of it, perched on the sill ! Teach me the secret, I'll tell not the rest. What fairy furnace glows warm in thy breast ? Ah* ! would crumbs win thee to perch here and stay — Perch in my heart and sing, Robia the gay ! AMONG THE HILLS 25 Among the Hills " What seek ye here among the hills, What guerdon of their giving ? "^ Release from sordid care that Idlls, Free hearts and heaven-attempered wills, A life superior to hfe's ills On higher heights of living. " Where pause the mountains, to the plain By green gradations bending. With passionate eyes that upward strain. What vision seek ye here in vain ? " — Loved forms we shall not find again Till earth with heaven be blending. " Amid the mists, below the slope. To yon dark valley roving. What fear impels you, or what hope ? " — With loss, with loneliness to cope. Through anguish and despair we grope To deeper depths of loving. 26 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Matins As out of slumber my thoughts came winging. And blent their notes with the bird-notes ringing Under the lattice beneath the eaves, One sweet thought, as my heart believes, — Was it a thought, or was it a thrush That had roosted nigh to God all night ? — Sang so loudly for pure dehght. That the rest cried " Hush ! Let us to sleep and dream again. If we too haply may catch the strain ! " So into silence back they crept. Heads under downy wings, and slept ; Then it ceased, and the dawn was dumb. And I must wait till the morrow come. But what if the singer for some sweet sake Forget to carol, or I to wake ? For in all my lifetime till to-day I never knew what a bird could say — How a thrush — or was it a thought ? — could sing Of God and Spring. " O FORTUNATOS NIMIUM. SUA SI BONA 27 NORINT ! " " O FortunatosNimium, Sua si BonaNorint ! " There's a fountain in a valley that I know Where the waters lisp a secret as they flow. And the hart's-tongue lolling from its cavern-cell Hath the secret on its tip, but may not tell. Past the skill of earth to utter, man to guess, The hid wisdom which to know were happiness : But at times there needs no telling ; everywhere It besets us and embraceth as the air. All that valley side is full of it : the breeze Wafts the burden as it filters through the trees, And you bruise it from the bracken, and its scent In the heather, as you breathe it, is content : And the peace of God descending on the soul — Every discord hushed in one harmonious whole — Whispers " Love shall be for ever, death's dark strife But an eye-wink of the sleepless lids of life." Happy fountain 1 happy valley ! happy folk, If their heart to its own happiness awoke — Rose to rapture from mere ignorance of ill 1 Yet the spirit of the stream is with them still : There's a ripple in their laughter as they go, There's a dancing in their eyes, and well I know Though they carol not, O stream, it needs must be There is music in their heart who dwell by thee. 28 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To the Garden of My Soul Didst thou, my soul, with thoughts for flowers. Divinely as this garden glow, What wealth were thine in sunless hours, What peace when storms of winter blow ! What airs of heaven thy leaves would shake That now droop spiritless and dumb. And Oh ! what answering whispers wake In hearts that know not whence they come ! Where gloomy shades around them close. And the pale petals earthward turn, Thy love should light the enraptured rose. Or bid the constant sun-flower burn. Now toss they 'neath the tempest's flail. Now sink in numbness of despair. Thy joy, thy peace, should still the gale. Or vitalise the stagnant air. IN THE MEDICI CHAPEL 29 In the Medici Chapel The Dawn-God droops ; Twilight with haggard eye Sickens ; a nameless horror daunts the air ; Day bursts abortive, to confront despair ; Night lieth lid-fast, lest of sight she die. O marble Griefs, some fallen Majesty Of earth bewail ye ? Nay, but when or where Sprang woman-bom, save One, whose pang to share Made shake the Elements, and paled the sky ? Think not to read this wonder-'Nvork of woe. Hewn from a Titan's heart : yon brow sublime Broods over it inscrutable : but know Here plants his foot upon the neck of Time, Avenged of Day and Darkness, Dusk and Prime, The great grieved soul of Michael Angelo. 30 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE At Perugia The young moon mounts ; day fades from off the plain ; No colour of man's naming hath this sky : Thrilled with the Beatific Vision nigh. So passes a pure spirit without pain. Like billows of a never-breaking main, The Umbrian Apennines hang poised on high Snow-crested : yonder doth Assisi lie, Lov'd shrine whereof the whole world's heart is fain. So there from hill to hill was wont to wend. And heal, and teach, and touch with living fire, Francis, God's Saint, six hundred years ago ! And thou and I have six poor days to spend. Tread back the past, and to yon heights aspire — Move slow, dear earth, about the sun, move slow ! AT ASSISI 31 At Assisi I Not thus should he be sepulchred, not thus — Almsman of God, and spouse of Poverty — Where fane crowns fane, a pillared praise on high. By Masters of renown made glorious. So men of old revered him : but to us Strange and immeet it seems that he should lie Where day by day with travel-jaded eye Crowds turn to gaze, and critic-tongues discuss. For pomp and splendour irked him : a bare shrine Rude and rock-bedded — ^the blue dome above — Sufficed his soul for worship : he did love To talk with birds and flowers, nor seldom trod Far from man's haunt the cloud-cowled Apennine, To be alone with God — alone with God. II To stoop in self-abasement to the earth, Not to need happiness, to shun no pain, In weakness to find strength, in losses gain. All things in nothingness, and wealth in dearth, Yea, and by daily death win spirit-birth — The Vision of the Unseen to sight made plain — Saint of Assisi, though men doubt thee sane. This was thy wisdom, this thy glorious worth. O Lowliness of soul, whose inward sway Is Peace and Resignation, with the slow Sure backward-ebbing of the waves of woe. Henceforth and from this hour do thou, we pray. Sit at the heart's helm, pilot us our way. As from the known to the unknown we go I 32 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE A Vicarage Garden I LOVE your garden's green repose, Shut safe from outer dust and din, The jet your wajnvard fountain throws. The fish beneath of golden fin ; The sweep of sward, the beds of bloom. The stately cedar's solemn shade. The arched lime-alley's cloistral gloom For lonely meditation made ; The terraced walk, the ivied wall. The music of the floundering mill. And, like an arm embracing all. The ridge of Chiltem's chalky hill. Here, faithful to her wedded vows. All day the mother-thrush will sit. Wee masons toil among the boughs. Or tiny lovers flirt and flit ; And sometimes, from his reedy bound Borne faintly past the poplar-stems. Comes, half a silence, half a sound. The murmur of the travelled Thames. Yes, happy bowers, I love you well. Not least I love you for that here Sage wisdom and the Graces dwell. With mirth and hospitable cheer ; A VICARAGE GARDEN 33 While hope and aspiration bright. And faith, with eyes upon the goal. And love of all things fair, unite To deck a garden for the soul ; Where those perennial fountains spring. That in the heart's waste places play. And on dead Summer's face can fling The smile of everlasting May. 34 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Life's Twilight As at the close of a long summer's day. When the sun's loss hath left the world in doubt, There is no darkness, for the stars steal out. Bright harbingers of his returning ray. So in the twilight of life's evening gray Glimpses of God within the soul devout Pierce, penetrate the shades that close about Time's darkening dome, and shine our fears away. O may my age be as that summer's eve. That I may gently lay the body by Like some dear outworn garment which men grieve A little to have done with ! O may I, As the years gather, in this faith be bold — There is no death, nor can the soul grow old ! AT THE OMAR KHAYYAM CLUB 35 At the Omar Khayyam Club I Lo ! Sun and Summer to the South have fled, Yet here are flowers, the White Rose and the Red ! Haste, then, for who can clip the Wings of Time ? And crown the Wine-Cup, as the Master said ! What crowns the Cup of Man's Desire who knows ? One saith " On Wealth and Leisure to repose " ; One with the cowled Assisan fain would teach "Toil is Life's Wine, and Poverty the Rose." " Nay," quoth another, " What wild talk is this Here in a World where some would kill, some kiss. Some scour the Earth, some sail the windy Sky, And aU to play at Hoodman-blind with Bliss Who still outwits them. Fool alike and Wise ? Say rather ' Vanity of Vanities ! There is no Crowning of the Heart's Desire ! '" But Omar smDing, Cup in Hand, replies : " Here is Nepenthe, here all Cares forget ! Sweet is this Lawn with wild Thyme dewy-wet, And sweet in Dream to Wander, as we pass From Nothingness to Nothingness." And yet Majestic Shade, what marvel if well nigh Hereof we dare to doubt thee, dare to sigh, With Souls yet vibrant to thy deathless Strain. " Can that which did beget the Immortal die ? " 36 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE II Now the veiled Watchers of the labouring Moon With never-wearying Service none too soon Have hid the still-bom Summer Months from sight, And Baby Winter 'gins to kick and croon. Happy the Man who can with us forget The Seasons' Difference, or the ruder Threat Of Warrior- Wordsmen eager for the Fray, Impoverished Peer, impetuous Suffragette. In this sequestered Garden of the Soul, Heedless who finds not, or who finds, the Pole, We pin our Faith upon Frascati's Cook, Or toast a Peri while we tilt the Bowl. Then, Eyes and Ears expectant, as to greet Some Lord of Art or eloquence, how sweet To list the Fountain-Play of Fancy plash In golden Words where Wit and Wisdom meet. Or think of those, the unforgotten Great Whom here with empty Glass we celebrate, And marvel whether such as these were made To be but Shuttlecocks of Time and Fate ! Omar such Stuff as the Wind scattereth 1 Fitzgerald Dust 1 We disbelieve thee. Death, And, maugre thy loud Boastings of the Past, Wait what the Future and the Silence saith. 1909. MY DACHSHUND 37 My Dachshund Three foot of high-bred beauty black and tan, Low-bodied, bandy-legged, with out-turned toes Waddling, twelve inches from the ground she goes. Yet nearer heaven than many a proper man. If love can lift her. Let who doubts it scan The mute soul mirrored in her glance when glows The heart behind it, and brute-nature grows Too noble for a thing so brief of span. How paint the sullen look wherethrough peeps, shy AfEection, the spasmodic ecstasies. The puzzled puckers of her brow ? Dear beast ! Egyptian hieroglyph she surely is. Or else quaint Indian idol — inline at least. For her idolater till death am I. 38 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE " She " Mark, stone, the spot for longing eyes Where she, the dachshund-darling lies. For fourteen years our pride and pet, Now evermore our fond regret ! Good-night, belov'd ! may some sweet gleam Of field or fireside haunt thy dream ! We lay thee amid ferns and flowers, The still'd small life that sweetened ours. And leave thee for thine own to keep Earth's two best blessings — ^love and sleep. BUSS-DHU " 39 " Buss-Dhu " The White Skye. Sweet little comrade whom we cannot see. Eight years our day-long solace and delight. Safe in our love thou Uvest ; O that we Could with our loving love thee back to sight ! 40 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Heart of the Thorn Cruel the rose-tree thorn ! Who grasps will rue it : But have ye seen at morn The sun shine through it ? Then, though the fell point feign With hate to hide it. Tender the warm heart-stain That glows inside it. Who 'mid the thorns of life To life's sun tumeth, Hid in the heart of strife Love's hue discemeth : Happy, though fate-accurst, ^Tio so can find it — See through the sad world's worst God's best behind it. FROM SULtY PRUDHOMME 41 From Sully Prudhomme " Ah ! si vous saviez." Ah ! knew you how forlorn and drear Beside an empty hearth to sigh, Sometimes, my dwelling-place to cheer. You would pass by. Knew you the power that one pure glance To sorrow-laden soul can lend. Up to my windows, as by chance, A look you'd bend. Knew you what springs of solace rise In heart to human heart drawn nigh, You'd seek my threshold sister-wise. And sit thereby. But knew you that I love, and how 'Tis death or life your love to win. You'd simply ope the door, I trow. And enter in. 42 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Winter Winter, what boon that we should hold thee dear, Who comest with desolation on thy wing, And all the ghosts of summer wandering Lost in the sunless limbo of the year ? Shortener of da}^ and darkener of our sphere. When flowers are quenched and wood-birds cease to sing. What boon for all these losses dost thou bring ? — Hope, that sways mightier than fruition here. Hail to thee, then, austere SteriUty, Whose dearth revives the glutted heart's desire. Nor cloys with having ! Yea, though time be long And warm winds tarry, dear enough to me Thy sheath-imprisoned seeds of unborn fire. And disenchanted Oracles of song. THE MESSAGE OF THE CHRISTMAS BELLS 43 The Message of the Christmas Bells What is this tale the Church-tower tells To the white country-side ? I hear six golden syllables — " 'Tis Christ's Eternal Tide." How then of death and sorrow deem. Of anger, lust, and pride ? These are not, though to thee they seem : 'Tis Christ's Eternal Tide. Good only Is : if thou so will, Thou may'st in Good abide : Awake thee from thy dream of ill To Christ's Eternal Tide ! On dark misdoubting turn the page ; Be certitude thy guide That in thee lies the golden age Of Christ's Eternal tide. O matchless truth ! O mystery By the blind world belied ! Nor was, nor is, nor is to be. Save Christ's Eternal Tide ! 44 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Christmas Message There is only Infinite Goodness, Infinite Love ; Nor thrall art thou to Sorrow, nor heir to Sin, For the earth, O Man, is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, And Doubt the only Devil who walks therein. One Way of Life, though the ways of death be seven : Nor Eastward nor Westward look, that Way to win, For amidst thee, O Man, is the very Heaven of Heaven And He that hath slain the Slayer is housed therein. AN EASTER MESSAGE 45 An Easter Message Through the gates again that harshly closing Hid from me a life more dear than mine — Left her with the lonely dead reposing. Lid-fast eyes that nevermore may shine — How the rebel griefs came backward thronging. Slew my soul beneath their withering fire, All the aching void and all the longing Of a quenchless love's untamed desire ! Till I cried, " O Thou in whom we trust. Thou who canst, uplift her from the dust. Heal her sickness, staunch her every tear ! " * * * * And a sudden Glory shone, which said " Seek no more for that which is not here ; Those that loved are with Me, have no fear ; I AM HE THAT LIVETH AND WAS DEAD ' 46 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Way of Life " 6 davaroe ovK iarai 'in," Shadow of wings on the window-curtain. Push of life in the pear-tree bough. Buds long hesitant, leaves uncertain, Softly murmuring, " Now, now, now ! " Eyes of love from the past that beckon — Beckon from where no past can be ! — And, spite of winters I scarce dare reckon. Youth and Spring at the heart of me ! Now while the loud-lipped ages thunder " This frail body must soon to sleep," Whose is the still, small voice, I wonder. Whispers, " Was it not thine to keep ? " Truth stands sentry at Life's wide portal ; G)uld but his thoughts to Life cling true, Man e'en now were of mould immortal ; Let him be wise and win thereto ! Knowledge-fashioned and Law-surrounded, Framed o'er nature to rule sublime. Firm as the rock beneath thee founded Wouldst thou smile at the tides of time — Dread no menace of fiend infernal. Powers of the earth, or stars above — Tune thy soul to the tones eternal. Faith Omnipotent, Wisdom, Love. Though my words but awake your laughter. Though men sicken and die to-day. Yet shcdl those to be bom hereafter Seek, persever, and find the Way. THE WAY OF LIFE 47 How should the world's illusion blind him, How catch tripping the toils of sin — Man, made ware of the Might behind him, Man, grown conscious of God within ? Into the Silence let me enter. Pierce to the Spirit's inmost shrine. There in the glow of the soul's hid centre, Bathe each thought till it burn divine ! So, let the change come swiftly, slowly. Earth-bound body, thou yet shouldst be Cleansed, transfigured, a house made holy For That which thrills at the heart of me ! 48 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Un Seul Etre voiis manque, et tout est depeuple If any prayer prevail with Heaven, we said. Ours is no empty breath : Too tender is she, and too fair, to tread The painful ways of death. Anon we mourned as mocked of our desire. And wept our fears fulfilled. When her meek spirit, perfected through fire. Passed where all pain is stilled. So rare, so dear, so patient, so resigned. That we, left void of all. Search the dark ways of Providence to find How such a loss should fall. Yet gleaned from earth, and to the angels given, God surely reaped thee. Sweet, Because the all-golden hairvest-home of Heaven Had else been incomplete. TO VENICE. 49 To Venice Sea-streeted City, once by Wordsworth hjonned In all too brief, but ever-during, song. What after-minstrel but must do thee wrong, And leave thee with thy brightness dashed, and dimmed ? Yet while thy visible beauties, ocean-rimmed And sky-encompassed, to our eyes belong, And thy dead past reflected clear and strong Lives, on the waters of the spirit limned. So potent is the charm which o'er thee broods. That tower and court and carven balcony. Lagoon and gliding gondola — nay even The pink-foot pigeons in their multitudes — Wake memories that might haunt a soul in heaven. And fire the very dumb to sing or die. 50 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Christmas, 1898 " Peace upon earth, goodwill to men," The burden of our Christmas cry — Again we greet it, and again Blush for our incredulity. Ah, God ! that such a hope should seem The figment of an empty dream ! In envious solitude apart, Or leagued in lust, the nations sit : Wrath in their eyes, and hate at heart. With bristling guns they gospel it : " Peace ! what hast thou to do with peace ? War upon earth, and gain's increase ! " Whose praise do priest and poet sing ? Whose altars stand in all our coasts ? With incense and with offering We call upon the Lord of hosts. And, calling, know not to our shame Love, Truth, and Justice, are His Name. O Love i' the heart Omnipotent, O fire of Truth within the mind, O Justice, who from heaven hast bent. Mankind to save against mankind — Great Trinity to whom we bow. Be near us, nay, be with us, now ! CHRISTMAS, 1898 31 Through all the centuries hath rung No nobler challenge than to-day Peals forth from that Imperial tongue To bid the world's arm'd torrent stay. Peal on, great voice from throne to throne, Till Hate's last harvesting be mown ! And, England, if thoti would' st not earn Dishonour's self-envenomed sting. Speak, or to lasting silence turn. And cease this coward questioning " When shall His Kingdom come, and when Peace upon earth, goodwill to men ? " 52 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Aurea i^tas O PARADISE of youth, the enchanted ring. Round which we baified outcasts idly rage. Thrice happy folk who yet call Saturn king, And still untarnished keep the golden age ! Fain would I loiter by the magic bound. Though pass I may not, no nor tarry long. So not too harshly in your ears may sound The sigh-born numbers of an exile's song. For you the sky-dome rears an ampler roof ; In you uncurdled by the frosts of fear Hope springs, and ever spreads her watery woof, A soul-reflecting current, swift and clear : So clear and swift, the very sight has power Sometimes within the breast to make us sigh Or not 1;o have out-lived that golden hour. Or to win second birth before we die. Us doubts disturb, or counter-aims confuse : Ye — and your lesser strife let none despise — Fight self-assured, and lose not though ye lose. For the strong purpose is itself the prize. Full oft befalls that what imports our need Is the deed's doing, not the deed we do : And, nobly followed. Nature's self may lead To heights we know not, though by paths we knew. AUREA yETAS 53 So toil and sport, if but for glory's sake ; Win Scholar's meed, fight grimly for the goal ; Grip bat, wield gloves, run, leap, and wrestle ; make Body and brain sound temple for the soul ! True, time will wake you from your glory-dream, Your name well nigh the fleeting hour forget ; And ye to your own larger selves may seem The pigmies of a puppet-shoW : and yet The shrine of honour built of bopsh praise. The eager faiths our boyhood's bosom knew — Say what amid life's shifting desert-ways Than that more steadfast, or than these more true ? 54 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Heavens The heavens whereon our hopes are set. What are they ? beauty, pleasure, pride. Ambition— all that never yet Hath heart of man beatified : Like wanderers in a midnight glen. Whose every glow-worm is a star. Till disillusion dawns, and then Earthy and of the earth they are. Who spend life's treasure to be filled With that which is not but in name ; Who waste the spirit's wealth to build Some folly-tower of human fame ; Or who to loftier ends aspire. Yet aim but.at the victor's crown — One is the heaven they take for hire. The hollow heaven of self-renown. Who, steeped in bodily delight. Forsake clear Honour's crystal well. Or, trafficking in truth and right. Ply commerce with the courts of hell. Voluptuous heart, and scheming head. That shape a heaven of craft or lust — The dome they build is for the dead. And pillared upon crumbling dust. HEAVENS 55 Yet some there be by instinct sure Led onward, of sublimer sort. To seek whate'er is just and pure And lovely and of good report ; Whose souls amid all human strife Like tranquil waters glide and shine — The lapse of an unsullied life Drawn daily nearer the Divine : For these, earth's discord to atone. Death's terror quell before they die. That inward heaven which is their own. The heaven of heart-simplicity. 56 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE A Country Song for Children Voice of winds and waters. Sunny smile of earth. To earth's sons and daughters What are these things worth ? Joy to hear them blowing, Joy to see them shine. The deep joy of knowing Smile and voice divine. Sound of swallows winging. Snowdrop in the sod. All the Spring bells swinging With the breath of God. Stars of fire above us. Blossom-stars below — Say, shall He not love us. Who made all things so ? Summer-burning meadow. Butterfly and bee. All that haunts the shadow. All that loves the lea. Gossamers that glisten. Leaves that flutter sere. Sing to us — O listen ! — Who have ears to hear. A COUNTRY SONG FOR CHILDREN 57 Wrath and storm of winter. Havoc in the land, When the great oaks splinter 'Neath the blinding brand. Clouds that clash in thunder. Clouds that fall in snow ! — Wait for Him, and wonder. Who made all things so 1 58 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Loveliness in Miniature Little maiden, fairy May Fairer than all song can say. Buoyant as the breeze of spring, Blithe as butterflies a-wing. Pure and fine the soul must be That can thus ethereally. And in earthly mould, express All its own unearthliness. Such the form sweet Echo had Ere Narcissus left her sad. Or young Eos, seen afar As she paled the morning star. Yet no transitory gleam Like to these art thou, no dream. Vision of fantastic birth. But a very child of earth. Hands and lips made humanly Warm to touch and real to see. Beyond fancy's wildest guess Miniature of loveliness. Like the sudden smiles that flit (Spring comes back to think of it) O'er the face of April, seen But to vanish and have been. So the swift vicissitude Of each gay or pensive mood. Sweet at rest thou art, and sweet Roving, sweetest when the feet. That will neither walk nor stay. Dance adown the common way. But how paint the winsome grace LOVELINESS IN MINIATURE 59 Of the flower that is thy face — With what beauty, say, begin ? Dainty cheek, or ^mpled chin ? Little mouth we must not miss, One wild rose-bud raised to kiss. Nor the pearly seeds that show When the lips' red petals blow. Then the slender length, and slim Elasticity of limb. And white throat, and hardly guessed Ripple of the girlish breast. Fraught with dimly understood Mysteries of maidenhood. And dark hair that overlies The wide wonder of thine eyes Azure-orbed, divinely shy. Radiant of eternity ! Love must come when thou art older. Or the hearts of men grow colder. And their eyes too gross to see : Then may life's felicity Crown thee ! but as now thou art The whole world must lose its heart. Child-enchantress, to thy lure. Loveliness in miniature ! 6o WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Of Janet, aged 5 To-day I saw your little Jan, You two in India far away, A dainty sylph that laughed and ran Upon the summer lawns at play : Dark-eyed with elfin locks of gold, A medley quaint of grave and gay. Of coy and forward, young and old — I saw your little Jan to-day. She paused amidst her paradise. And lofty scorn was in her ken. Half scanning with reluctant eyes The monster, me. A sprite, a wren. The shy beginnings of a girl, A saucy nymph, a was^ward fay, A dewdrop prisoned in a pearl — I saw your little Jan to-day. Anon to battledore she sped. Or turned with fls'ing puss to fly. Or seized the terrier by the head. Unconscious of her cruelty. Her pout is an incarnate kiss. She smiles, a sunbeam strikes the may ! Her whim is law : you'll know by this I saw your little Jan to-day. OF JANET, AGED 5. 61 No news I send you : 'tis the heart In exile hungers, not the brain : What need to prate of Church and mart, Or Curzon and his coining reign ? Of statesman and of diplomat The more that's said, the more's to say ? Kingdoms may wane, but what of that ? — I saw your little Jan to-day. 62 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Earth's Message to the Old Eight hundred feet above the brine, 'Mid sylvan sounds and hushes. And breath of bracken and of pine. And scented heather-flushes. O'er leagues of verdure, belts of blue. Through weeks of buoyant weather. From morning-dew to evening-dew We twain have gazed together. Where Leith Hill tower the landscape crowns. And points a stony finger, On Sussex, Surrey, Kent, the Downs, Our eyes have loved to linger : From Reigate round to Shoreham Gap We've marked the spires up-peeping. Fields, hamlets, hedgerows, like a map. In mellow sunlight sleeping. Tree-dotted uplands, pastures fair As erst thy realm, Apollo, The tilted hfil-slopes bright and bare. The shadow-softened hollow. Lift we our eyes unto the hills When grief or care oppresses. Till the blood warms, the spirit thrills 'Neath Nature's kind caresses ! EARTH'S MESSAGE TO THE OLD 63 Or if the wings of ecstasy Beat faint with life's long travel, As still from bleaker heights we see The sunny past unravel ; — Hath time so wrought with us, that now In our old festal places We greet the mirth with troubled brow, Or sigh with smiling faces ; Yet whoso' sits at Nature's feast In patient contemplation. If not to rapture, wins at least To rest and resignation. So walk we armed for best or worst. Content whate'er betide us ; So to the last, as from the first. Shall wisest Nature guide us ; Who saith, " To yon empyreal heights Lest I and mine should blind you, Learn now life's visible delights In heart to leave behind you : No bUnking of the bitter truth Makes April of November ; Hope's earth-bom visions are for youth. The old can but remember." 64 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Poeta Suburbanus This is where my songs are hatched, Here I house me snugly In a villa half-detached. Architecture ugly. If some know me not who knew. Why be melancholy ? How should Aethiop change his hue. Or a fool his folly ? On our right a City-clerk, Most urbane of neighbours. Earlier than the rising lark In his garden labours : Leftward, where above the wall Peeps a Bearer's turban. Children romp and parrots squall. Such is Ufa suburban. Yet at dawn we hear the thrush His old stave repeating. And far bells at twilight-hush Waft a vesper-greeting. Yon white liUes not in pride Lift their dainty noses, And all June our southern side Burns with roses, roses : POETA SUBURBANUS 65 Nature for our own poor sake, Not for wealth or station. Loves us, and is fain to make Tender compensation. True it is, believed or not — Poverty will prove it — Though you cannot raise your lot. You may rise above it. Croesus at our home hath curled Lip of scorn, nor guesses Richer wealth than half the world Stored in its recesses. Lofty hope and hoarded thought. Treasures beyond telling That could ne'er with gold be bought, Crown our simple dweUing. 66 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Wedding Rhymes BRIDE and bridegroom, while the sun Shall cast a shade on your life's dial. May many a cup of sparkling fun Be poured from this Venetian phial ! Come, make the trial ! I'll warrant the deft hands long cold That round the dainty waist first took it ; And, if the cork be scarce so old. To our default pray do not book it. But overlook it. No bubble in the crystal spied. But came from lips of lovers sighing ; And up and down its tendrilled side (Fair omen) turtle-doves are flying. There's no denying. See too with what a jaunty air It cocks those skinny arms akimbo. As if protesting " I shall ne'er. Cracked by an arrow from Time's grim bow. Be laid in limbo." Of its own worth, though all too slight, 'TwiU plainly bate nor jot nor tittle : Yet take it, in its own despite An emblem of true love in little. Though far more brittle. WEDDING RHYMES 67 II On a day the wide world roaming, Love, who sought for lovers true. Weary of his quest came homing To the hearts of you and you : Some his fiery shafts affrighted, Some were fickle, some were vain. Till in happy hour he Hghted There to rest him and to reign. Reign of Love, how much or little Knows the world thy lustral power ? Thou art not the brief and brittle Impulse of an ardent hour ; Not a flame now fierce, now dwindling. As the blood beats high or low. But a light whose mystic kindling Is of heaven's eternal glow. When the powers of darkness muster. Should one ray from thee be shed, Azrael, blinded by its lustre. With foiled errand bows the head. Those who find thee lose thee never ; Throned amidst them there art thou With thy glorious sign. For ever, Writ in radiance on their brow, DazzUng so men's souls with beauty. They discern not hate or harm : Peace thou art, and joy in duty, And pure faith, and power to charm : 68 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE And beyond all past as^piring, Present bliss, or boon to be. The high crown of their desiring Is to be controlled by thee. Who so guard, thy golden tether. Nor reluctant own thy sway. These may dare all worlds together ! Hail we then this happy day. When, from idler dreams awaking. Love, that maketh all things new. Weaves the net that knows no breaking Round the hearts of you and you ! Ill When Love, from heaven alighted. Touched with seraphic fire These twain, divinely plighted In holy, fond desire. For utterance all too fleeting. For mortal ear too fine. The song of their hearts' beating O'erflowed, methought, to mine— " Arise, ye lowland dwellers. Forsake yon arid plain — The buyers and the sellers Who barter souls for gain ! Mount upward, and mount hither. Where thrill the finer sense Such flowers as will not wither. And spring we know not whence- WEDDING RHYMES 69 Where birds are angels singing. And not a breeze can blow But to the heart comes bringing What none but lovers know : For, wintry skies or vernal. We keep our golden Prime, And hear the bells eternal Peal from the towers of time ! Come to this world of wonder Where fraud and force are not. Nor sweet lives torn asunder. Nor holiest vows forgot — Where weakness fears no capture, Nor poverty disdain : — Come, and of inward rapture Inaugurate the reign ! Earth yearns, the heavens are willing. And wind, and flower, and sod. Await but man's fulfilling Of the glad Dream of God ! " " O blessM ones abiding," I said, " in Love's sure mding ; Whose bark no billow tosses ; Who from the visible goal. New-gained, of your desire Can still aspire To enter, soul with soul. That infinite Beyondness Where only human fondness Can fix her wandering star, Housed as we are Amid this turbid hum 70 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Of Babel gains and losses. Yet onward, upward pressing To the one thing worth possessing, God helping, and Love guiding, We come to you — ^we come ! " IV Quoth he, " If ever Love shall come And of my life claim masterdom, I will him take, for joy or dole, As the one sovereign of my soul, And in that high surrender see A very heaven of liberty. And whatso' powers be mine to charm From inward fear or outward harm. With all that manlike in me stirs. Making for godlike, shall be hers Who kindled the refining fire That hallows and uplifts desire From strength to strength, from grace t© grace. Till in my mind's most holy place — Love's loftiest consummation this — I am not, and she only is : A presence that to hearts made wise Is mightiest of all Mysteries, And token of the eternal gain Which is man's birthright to attain." Quoth she, " If ever at God's call The yoke of Love on me should fall, I'd wear it, till my days were spent. As life's divinest ornament ; WEDDING RHYMES 71 And what within me noblest is, Or outward fairest, should be his Who set my beating heart a-tune With roses and the breath of June, And all the sweet world's witchery. Yea, as their beauties are to me. So would I seem to him ; a sight To bathe his spirit in delight ; A voice to touch the hidden strings That thrill to fine imaginings ; A power, when earthly cares oppress. To ease him of their weariness. And rouse to rapture at a breath ! The very self within me saith ' For thee, my lover, this could I, Or, if I could not, let me die ! ' " O thou that of all kings we ken Art lordliest over maids and men. That knowest the deeps of their desire. To what far heights their souls aspire, If haply the heart-whispered word Of these thy votaries thou hast heard Who wed within thy courts to-day — Deal so with them. Lord Love, we pray. V For the vows divinely pUghted By these lovers, now united. Set we all our soul-beUs swinging With a sweet and rhs^hmic ringing In their high-built towers eternal. That from dust of things diurnal 72 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE We may waft them with our chiming, Tuning it, the while, and timing To the deep and soundless chorus Of the souls that loved before us. Who have gained that golden morrow On the sunward side of sorrow, AH their travail past redeeming With the substance of earth's seeming ! From those high and holy places May the Virtues, may the Graces, To the loom of Ufe descending Weave them days of happy blending — Warp of toil and weft of leisure Patterned into perfect pleasure- — With all flowers of fine affection Wrought for lasting recollection ! Roamers of Faith's magic mountain May they find the enchanted fountain That with bubbUng bUss up-bursteth For the lips of him that thirsteth. Filling what can ne'er be sated. By its own sweet want created ! So, beyond all risk of ranging, Love, the chaste, the never-changing, Whatso' mortal hap betide them. In his secret haunt shall hide them, Keep them whole and single-hearted. Ne'er to be estranged or parted. By the troth no time can sever Welded and made one for ever ! WEDDING RHYMES 73 VI The many seek delights that cl(w ; Ye twain are of the few ; To others here and there a joy. The sum of joys for you ! Henceforth, though seas or lands divide. Fear ye no lonely hour. So strong to keep you side by side The Presence and the Power, That welds the universe in one. And o'er the heart hath sway, Can see, though midnight blots the sun. And hear, though worlds away. Now what the singing laverock feels At last ye learn, and what The red heart of the rose reveals, Though others mark it not ; Over the spirit's deep abyss Such error broods, men deem As visionary that which is. As real the things that seem. You from this hour it doth behove Among earth's seers to be — Interpreters of heaven ; for love Life's secret is, and he. To whom that secret doth belong. Alone perceives and knows The Soul that is behind the song. The God within the rose. 74 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE VII Love's a jewel that will shine Fairest in a sombre setting : Such a bridal hour is thine, Gay with hope yet unforgetting : Smiles and tears, that meet together. In the soul make April weather. Sad and happy that thou art. Take this message I am sending From a heart and to a heart, Wherein joy and grief are blending 1 Joy was bom to conquer sorrow, April will be May to-morrow. A 70TH BIRTHDAY 75 A 70th Birthday {April gih). Threescore ten are the years I've told : , Time, say you, to prepare to die. Soon to be missed and under the mould : Haply, my friend, yet why ? If all these decades — ^may God forgive ! — My dajra have been water poured in a sieve, And I never, by knowing Him, learned to live. Time to begin, say I. Think of the hazardous paths I trod. Heading for ruin, but forced to stay. By the magnificent might of God Ever from day to day Rescued, renovate, born anew ; Blindly doing what man may do To baulk His purpose, and yet brought through ! Now for a saner way ! Look at the great unchanging laws, Chemic, mechanic, and what beside. Modes of the one Almighty Cause In the bodies where we abide ! Operant e'en the while we sleep ! Kindred of those the soul must keep Or ever to Life Eterne she leap. To reign as the Spirit's Bride ! Teeming with thoughts that breed disease, Drugged with delusions that make for death, Too earth-bound, e'en upon bended knees. To hear what the Spirit saith. 76 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Casting in with the world her lot, Fed upon that which sustaineth not. How should the soul up-build, I wot, A palace of Vital Breath ? Strong enough are the Primal Powers For suns and moons to endure thereby. But not say you, for these frames of ours That sicken and droop. Yet why ? Here's God's whole Kingdom at hand within. For thought to fathom, for faith to win : Time to be rid of this nightmare sin. And waken to Life, say I. CHRISTMAS ROSE 77 Christmas Rose Where drooped the frail flower-children. By Summer left behind, I saw her white-robed sister With fingers cold and kind Around them for protection her windy raiment wind. " Bide still with me, my darUngs, Nor froUc now, nor fret ; Bide stUl, bide still," she whispered. Snowdrop and Violet ! For many a month of morrows ye must your games forget. " Within my folds content you. Nor dare afield to stray, But sleep, and still be dreaming Of April or of May, Till Mother comes to wake you when I am called away." But lo ! as thus she warned them. And turned to these or those, I saw where singly daring Her petals to disclose, (For she had slept all summer) outsprang the Christ- mas Rose. 78 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Friends in the North Blithe winds that sweep the moor, and take Their savour from the main. Of power to soothe the spirit's ache And brace the weary brain : Wild headlands whence the sea-fowl flit To cloud and storm akin, Soft dells and shadowy dingles fit To shelter fairies in ; The mystic blue immensities Where sky and ocean touch Commingling — you have given us these. And these indeed are much ; But more than all we learn from you He finds the best who finds Hearts that beat only to be true. And truth-enamoured minds. CASTELLO DI URIO. LAGO DI COMO 79 Castello di Urio, Lago di Como Here in Love's Temple, high-enthroned. On Urio's castled seat. By snowy-snooded Alps enzoned. Lies stretched beneath my feet From shore to shore, from end to end, In heaven's own colours dyed. The Lake beloved by Trajan's friend. And hjntnned by Dante's guide : I know not when so fair a dream Drew back my spirits bar. To loose her from the things that seem. And lift to things that are. Now, nearer if one turn to gaze, Arrests the enraptured eyes This lesser rock-hewn realm, where sways A Queen of Paraidise — With terrace upon terrace crowned. And linked above, below. With footways winding as they wound Five hundred years ago. Hard by, a torrent storms in pride Adown his bouldered bed. Or, by the thirst of summer dried. Drops dwindling to a thread ; 8o WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Upon whose dark and dripping wall The lolling harts' -tongue hangs ; For winter here doth windless fall. Nor whets his frosty fangs ; And see ! 'neath many an ivied edge Bright speedwell gleams afar, Or periwinkle lights the ledge With star on azure star. Here Guava blends both fruit and bloom. And round the Cypress-towers, All tender-pale against their gloom. Wisteria winds her flowers. Or clothes the naked wall, and clings To ravish scent and sight. And with Falernian bounty flings Her clusters of delight ; And e'en ere May's first maiden blush, While April's yet to run. Almost you'll hear the roses rush To riot in the sun ! Behind yon gnarled and knotted root Peering, you may surprise Some Satyr straining in pursuit, Some Faun with startled eyes, Or pensive, for sweet fancy's sake. Descend with footing slow Those stately steps that Upped the lake Five hundred years ago ! CASTELLO DI URIO, LAGO DI COMO 8i Of guarded fount I fain would tell. And pebble-broidered lawn. And yon slim tower whose clangorous bell Beats out the birth of dawn. Or how sweet Lario's pulses thrill To meet the amorous air : But stay, fond muse, thy faltering quill. And cease thy needless care : For lo ! the greatness and the grace Of long-forgotten days — Fair birthright of this princely place — With all the love and praise Of what, in nature or in art. Must needs our worship win, Shine mirrored in the eyes and heart Of her who reigns herein. 82 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE ** Non, si male nunc, et olim Sic erit." Hask ! in this garden, 'neath a cloudy pall. The nightingales are singing in the rain. " Grief is a guest that will not long remain," They call to thee, they call. Ah ! didst thou doubt that Love is over all ? Here is a thought to ease thee of thy pain — Nature despairs not, though her tears may fall, The nightingales are singing in the rain. AT RIVA 83 At Riva Pelion on Ossa piled ! These Alps awake Old Titan memories ; battlements sublime, Rampart out-shouldering rampart as they climb High o'er the dimpling blue of Garda's lake, Eager for eminence ! Look till your eyes ache, Gaunt bones o' the world laid bare by storm and time Emerge stupendous, measured not in rhyme. Limned by no language tongue of man e'er spake ! Hush, then ! and thrilled with a diviner sense See, where the sun goes westering to his goal, As by an archer's hand, with bow drawn tense Aiming at earth, yon shaft of glory flung ! — Ladder of Ught the re-ascending soul May mount by to the Eternal whence she sprung ! 84 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE S.E.R.T. So the long term of widowhood is o'er, For thou hast joined him, and art travelled hence Past mortal vision. We shall see no more The broad high brow's benign inteUigence, The eyes and lips where truth and humour met, The feet so swift, upon love's errand set. God rest thee, dear one, at thy journey's close ! To pass from out the turmoil of mankind Through death to life, through suffering to repose — Such is thy guerdon, and to leave behind For us that lose thee, through the darkened years, Memories too sweet to be profaned by tears. TIME'S MASTERPIECE 85 Time's Masterpiece At Gladstone's birth to the slow-shaping Hours From the Creator's mouth this mandate ran : " Fill me the measure of a perfect man. Erect, strong, fearless, of transcendant powers : Grace, wisdom, learning — Slavish all your dowers, Goodness and greatness mixed, till span by span Too high for friends to envy, foes to ban. Above the tempests of maiQcind he towers." Then Innocence and holy Awe they bring To aid them. Honour, triple-mailed Truth, And Love, and righteous Ire, and tender Ruth, With wide-winged Faith and Fortitude : and so Nigh ninety years they laboured, fashioning A monoUth of manhood — ^now laid low. 86 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Catharine Gladstone {June igth, 1900). Nothing is here for tears, or loud Alas ! Wed to a matchless mind, a godlike will. His angel, beautiful in youth, she was. And, beautiful in eld, his angel still. 'Twas weary waiting in the house of tears ; And when to eyes with age and vigil dim. Mom, noon, and night, for two long lonely years He came not, she arose and went to him. Dawn fair then, O thou more than marriage day. When now for ever — not, till death do part — Troth-boimd within their minster-bed we lay The noble heart beside the noble heart. GENERAL SYMONS 87 General Symons (October, 1899). Alas, the pity of it ! alas, the pain ! Left by the ebbing tide Of his own victory, England's loss and gain. Amid her foes he died. O consummation that all grief beguiles. And death itself endears — To float fame-wafted to the Happy Isles Upon a nation's tears ! 88 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Sonnet Introductory to " the History of the Victoria Cross " " II Campo et lo Exercito de' CavaUeri di Dio" Here, limned in lightning on the scroll of fame. The record of earth's bravest ye may read — Men to whose making fell such fiery seed. Changed was their heart of flesh to heart of flame. Whether of kings or cotter-folk they came, These all, though scions of that immortal breed That knows no country, doer alike and deed. Exalt their nation, and adorn her name. Nor lack there, by diviner frenzy driven. Who, fate once foiled, athwart the hail-swept sod Thirsty to save, the battle-ways re-trod Triumphcint. Lo ! to whom such grace is given. These, yet on earth, be paladins of heaven — The camp and army of the Knights of God. STARS 89 Stars {November, 1899). Stars in the north ! world-fragments, that through space Aeon on aeon ran their darkling race. Strike fiery-white against earth's airy wall. And luminous in dissolution fall. Stars in the south ! dim souls, that could not shine While life's dull orbit did their course confine, Now devious hiurled on war's opposing breath Flash in a brief magnificence of death. 90 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Privates of the Line O RANK and file of England, Bold Privates of her line. Whose battle-deeds unnumbered In deathless glory shine, Too cold the lips that praise you, Too few the eyes that weep. Too oft with dull oblivion In nameless graves ye sleep : Untaught and roughly nurtured. If faint in you the flame Of loftier aspiration That fires the soul to fame — If life's best lore ye know not. Yet this at least ye know, To fight, to die for England, When England bids you go. We, nursed in high traditions. And trained to nobler thought. Deem, haply, death less bitter Than life too dearly bought : Sharp spurs have we to honour, But ye without their aid Rush on the deadly breaches. And storm the barricade : Though oft your lives belie you — Rude hands and ruder lips — At least ye shine transfigured In death's apocalypse. When by one deed that washes Each soul as white as snow, From merely man grown godlike. To God at last ye go. G. W. STEEVENS 91 G. W. Steevens " Every bit as good as dead, except that dead men have no time to fill in." * Cast upon stormy climes, his life was writ In lightning, and like lightning vanished. While to a proud and ruling race he cried " Behold your Empire ! love and look to it," Sudden he spake no longer : he was dead. Ah ! though the words wherewith he testified Outlive the lips that spoke, is this, we ask. His end who roamed the earth so fast and far — Dull pause, blank void, for ever to Ue still ? Nay, but — ^who knows ? — ^with some subUmer task, Swift courier-service on from star to star. Not time but all eternity to fill. " From Capetown to Ladysmith." p. 128. 92 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Ambulance Heroes Worthy are all in Country's cause who die Of the white robe of immortality : To fever-stricken couch or blood-stained sod The caU of Duty is the call of God. But happier they, and higher is their praise, Who, armed witifi mercy, thrid the battle-wuys. Haunt the sick air, and brave the cannon's breath, Nor only slay not, but wage war with death. A PATHETIC INCIDENT 93 A Pathetic Incident Gentle and brave amid the ranks he rode, And felt the steed beneath him proud and true ; Gentle and brave the steed beneath him trode. And felt " My master's heind will guide me through." And, hour on hour, through dying and through dead. And lashed by rain from heaven, and hail from hell. From mom to eve unscathed alike they sped. But at the close of day the charger fell. He saw the shattered Umb, the heaving breast. And eyes entreating aid he could not lend. With kiss on kiss the velvet nozzle pressed. And longed, yet loathed, its agony to end. And heedless for a while how trumpet blared. Or round him roared and flashed the fiery zone. He who all day the battle's worst had dared Now dared not brave the bivouac alone. Then in one sob the parting word he spoke. The loaded death with hand reluctant drew. — O dear dumb friends I O patient of our yoke ! There's many a heart, ye know not, aches for you. 94 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE By the Graves on the Veldt Spare them your pity, 'tis unmeet. deem not that they died in vain Who in the hour of dark defeat With thriftless valour strewed the plain ! Life freely given, and duty done — What'er the hours shall mar or make. The sum of all beneath the sun Henceforth is nobler for their sake. Spare them your honours, let them rest. Let earthly fame forget them now : No need of cross upon the breast, Or laurel to renown the brow : Though the bare Veldt around them spread, Not all unnoted of the skies There springs above each hero-head The snow-white flower of sacrifice. ' ROMANE, MEMENTO " 95 " Romane, Memento . . . Parcere subjectis " When the arm'd might of England shall o'erthrow The last rude barrier that her course delayed. Shall baser thoughts by better be o'er-swayed Nobly to deal with no ignoble foe ? Shall Might and Mercy Unked like Graces go With Justice, naked and yet unafraid. Or the ripe fruit of war be fruitless made By retribution boundless as her woe ? Nay, but of all woes this would be the worst. To taint our tear-springs, desecrate our dead. Making the cause for which they died accurst : Strike mute with shame the slanderous mouths which said " Ye war for gold or empire " : make it true That England's heart was nobler than they knew. 96 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Return of Lord Roberts (December, 1900). On many a field he played a peerless part ; Now from his latest with new honours won Home comes our hero, but with wounded heart, A dauntless sire who mourns a dauntless son. No haughty conqueror by his own bright star Dazzled, red-flaming in a death-dark sky, But humble-hearted as true heroes are. And most made noble by humanity. Ever where ambushed death a-lurking lay, Or fortune matched the many against the few. Sheer force and fire, he clove the battle-way. Or did the desperate thing that was to do. From the rent ribs of danger still he stole The honey of success, nor staggered then Sweet-surfeited. Master of his own soul He was, and Master of the hearts of men. Sorrow might strike him, but no sorrow long Shake the deep-rooted manhopd of the man : Weakness is selfishness ; his soul was strong. Armed with the hidden strength which all things can . So when the high call sounded, there was he Ablest in war-craft, apt for strenuous deed — No nobler weapon in God's armoury — Fashioned and tempered to his country's need, THE RETURN OF LORD ROBERTS 97 Tj^e of our knightliest who have fought and bled And suffered, ever first upon the foe. Yet gentle ever, and loved by those he led. Such was the youth, and such the man we know. Now grave and great, returning to lay down His laTirelled sword, haply no more to roam. And wearing on white locks a threefold crown — Age, grief, and glory — comes our hero home. 98 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Return of the C.I.V. (October zyth, 1900) London is loud ! whose honour is she voicing Afire with flags through endless miles of street ? Mother of millions with one mouth rejoicing — What is their glory whom she throngs to greet ? England had need ; the sons of peace up-springing Armed for her aid the battle-shock sustained, From desk and till, from court and counter bringing Valour of veterans, though to war untrained. Shout ! for nor home nor love of gain could bind them ; England had need, across the seas they sped : Hush ! there are tears for those they left behind them. Tears, and hearts breaking for the untimely dead. Strife's bitter shoot, we graft it to our sorrow ; Accurs'd of God earth sickens in its shade ; Madness to-day, and death it bears to-morrow ; Ah ! cut it down : why cumbereth it the glade ? Peerless the deed they wrought : who dare misprize it? England had need, they served her passing well ; , Only the glory — ^let us not disguise it. Slaughter is sorry work, and war is hell — Not for foes vanquished, or red vengeance taken. Splendour of sword-sweep, flash of battle-flame. But for life jeoparded, life's ease forsaken. Greet we these comers in their country's name. QUEEN VICTORIA 99 Queen Victoria Lay her to rest. O hour of grief and awe ! We say not England's happier days are done ; But who with that magnetic touch shall draw And weld our world-spread Empire into one ? May He, who gave the mother, grace the son ! So simply noble that almost she made Of earth-bom sovereignty a thing divine ! Love was her law ; by purity she swayed, A power nor grief nor age could undermine — Her throne an altar, and her hearth a shrine. Queen, wife, and mother, peerless : even so : And this shall be her fame in after-years : Or alien or akin, or friend or foe. Old jealousies forgot, old feuds and fears. The whole earth wrote her epitaph in tears. Lay her to rest. Her memory shall be blown Like pure sweet air upon a tortured clime. She made for peace, and passes to her own With those who reign--0 recompense subUme !- Beyond the folding gates of Space and Time. 100 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Lord Kitchener (1903). Doer of deeds, word-sparer» whose firm will Warped not mth waiting though the time was long, In those dark hours, when weaker hearts stood still, Thine own beat steadfast, and we knew thee strong ; But few divined how generous and how wise. Till Peace revealed thee for all eyes to scan. And through the Warrior's seeming-cold disguise Out-flashed in magnanimity the Man. FREDERICK TEMPLE loi Frederick Temple Fallen is the Master-Builder ! and how fill The void ? What new Zenibbabel appears For this old Knight of God, whose eighty years Slacked not the hands that would be toiUng still ? Who thronged in youth to hear him — ^with what thrill Recall we yet the harsh voice dipped in tears. As, stone by stone, his living House he rears Upon the bed-rock of the Eternal Will ! Rugged as Cato, nor less sternly true. Beneath his brows, with solid thought o'er-hung, , There flashed twin fire-bolts that burned evil through : For the World's ear Thor's hammer was his tongue : But to Christ's simple folk, the old, the young, How tender, those alone who learned him knew. 102 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE A Welcome to the King of Italy {November lyik, 1903). Cometh Italy to England ? O ye winds be debonair, Lest ye shame our northern welcome as his galleys breast the blue I In our heart is cloudless weather, be the firmament as fair ! Land to land laughs out a greeting, let the skies proclaim it too ! Let the winds and seas and skies proclaim it too ! From a folk we never fought with, from the shores that are as home — That as very home we sigh for, when the creeping sea-mists cling. From a clime whose summits hide in heaven, whose feet are in the foam. From a land of vine and oUve, lake and torrent, comes the King ! Of the Garden of all Europe comes the King ! King, renewer, and upbuilder of a Nation ! for behold How to nobler heights of being than from whence her hopes were hurled She arises, and to conquest more endviring than of old. When Leviathan obeyed her, and she held a strug- gUng world — When her hook was in the nostrils of the world ! Lo ! her lamps that light the ages — bards and heroes of the earth ! Numa, Cato, Africanus, Garibaldi — name on name — A WELCOME TO THE KING OF ITALY 103 Virgil, Dante, Galileo ! Since her spirit sprang to birth- Scattered chaos — ^what a kindling in the firmament of fame — Stars that pale not in the firmament of fame 1 Princes, Paladins, and patriots, and the men who strove in stone, Wept in marble, prayed in colours that have turned the world to tears — Aspirations, benedictions, seraph-faces zone on zone Circling upward, winged with rapture, to the Soul that Ms the spheres — To be mingled with the Soul that fills the spheres ! Half the streams that slake the nations have from her boon bosom run : Up then, England ! and remembering that which flowed from her to thee — Law and worship, art and glory — ^let us welcome the son's son Of the King who freed his country to the country of the free — From the country, to the country, of the free ! 104 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Presideift Loubet O CHOSEN Leader of that chosen race Of whom sprang chivalry and high-souled romance. And all the arts of greatness and of grace — Welcome invader, and unarmed for ill. Who comest to spoil us of our heart's good will, And win us with the charm of sunny France ! On many a field of yore our hosts have met. Shoulder to shoulder some, some hand to hand, Nobly in valour matched — ^matched noblier yet Now when, the sea-mist from betwixt us blown. Old feuds forgotten and old fears out-grown. Neighbour greets neighbour, and land smiles on land ! SCOTLAND'S GREETING 105 Scotland's Greeting to King Edward VII., 1903 Not crowned head, or sceptred hand alone. Or empire bounded by the seas and skies, Demands the homage which, to-day thine own. From Scotland's heart doth myriad-voiced arise. Because thou hast passed the gates of suffering, So Heaven upheld thee greatly to endure. And 'gainst a mightier foe didst play the King Than erst thy Sire assailed at Agincourt ; Because thine eyes into the eyes of death For all his threatening front looked royally, When Britain paled, and Europe held her breath. And, save thine own, all thoughts were turned to thee — To thee and her whose smile yet lights the land As when she moved among the bridal throng. Without whose wifely heart and woman's hand Time scarce had turned our sorrow into song ; — Because thou art linked with Scotland from of old, And lov'st her purple moors and mountains grey — For these things' sake, O Sire, no heart so cold But fain would greet thee on thy triumph-day ; And this sea-broidered city, rock-enthroned. Whose pulse throbs deeper than the throbbing drums. Roars from her torrent-throats a thunder-toned " Rejoice, for the King comes ! " io6 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE L'Entente Cordiale (August 7— 13th, 1905). Of old we fought for fiefs and sovereignties ; We grudged each other's titles to be great ; Our clashing fleets incarnadined the seas ; And who was richer for our pride and hate ? Now, sister-powers upon the midway main, Guard we the new-found fair inheritance Which all our greed of Empire could not gain : For France at length wins England, England France ! SIR HENRY IRVING 107 Sir Henry Irving So farewell, Irving ! Punctual to the last Great call that summoned him rehearse on high. Who knows in what majestic drama cast He turned from counterfeit of death to die ? Mighty magician, msister of the spells That move to grief or pity, love or scorn ! " The rest is silence " ; but the silence tells Of art ennobled and a stage forlorn. io8 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Death of William Terriss Pit, stalls, and gallery crowded ; the whole House Ablare with music and ablaze with light. Teeming with expectation ; a loud hum Of hearts impatient for the curtain's rise And that loved Actor, skilled in tragic show, 'Md ear-enthralled, eye charmed multitudes. To 'scape the mimic dagger, or to die. The curtain rose not, nor the Actor came : For he was dead, their dear protagonist. The gentle and the generous, and e'en now Passing I know not to what awful stage And solemn audience of the unseen world : For as his groping fingers clutched the key Of that familiar portal, in the dim Death-ambushed entrance by a shadowy hand From out the shadows stabbed and stabbed again, He knew not fvimbling with the door of heaven. JAPAN & THE TREATY OF PORTSMOUTH 109 Japan and the Treaty of Portsmouth More than a conqueror now she stands revealed. He that hath read war's rueful histories In this, Japan, thy sole surrender, sees Thy crowning triumph ; who, by flood and field Victor, to no base idol having kneeled Of greed or glory, didst with seeming ease. The golden mean accovmting more than these, On the full tide of fortune pause, and yield. Thy loss herein were universal gain. Would but thy Western teachers learn of thee The strength, in strength, which can itself restrain. Nor for pride only, or mere aims of State, But, in humanest magnanimity. Cares for the sake of greatness to be great. no WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Queen Alexandra's Homecoming (1906). Mourners of England, to whose bitter needs Her hand brought ever cinodyne, the heart. That bled for yours, for her own sorrow bleeds : Play ye your part ! Waft summer to her soul this wintry morn ! May she, whom death's dark herald bade to roam. From loving hearts to loving hearts be borne Homeward from home. H. M. Ill H.M. But yester-month I had not seen his face ; To-day that face can be no more forgot ; Too full of something beyond time and space To be remembered not. Few words we spoke together, and those few Not of the one dear solace souls may win ; Only from something in his eyes I knew What Presence housed within. That his long since the all-healing antidote, Needed no words ; his very glance sufficed ; No eye e'er looked upon him but took note That he had been with Christ. So brave, so suffering, so with meekness crowned ! And with such patient smile he bore his cross ! Ah ! scarce I knew the jewel I had found. Before I learned its loss. 112 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Ellen Terry {April, 1906). Time, that writes ruin on each mortal brow. The soul's creations hath no power to harm : Their youth is stamped with an eternal Now, And lapse of days but consecrates their charm. So to our inward sense thou grow'st not old, O gracious Vision ! so this fiftieth year But renders thee the fairer fifty-fold. And fifty-fold more dear. JOACHIM 113 Joachim How oft his vibrant bow now laid supine — Mighty interpreter of the lords of sound — Hath caught the dust-drift of our daily round And danced it into mazy forms divine, Making the dull seem dear, the common fine. And our dead thoughts within to leap and bound With intricate phantasies lost as soon as found. And stainless left the floor-way of God's shrine ! Selfless cind sacrosanct he held his aim Unwavering, true as needle to the star. For his initiate ear long deaf to fame, And ever rapt from earth's discordant din. The temple of music hung her doors ajar. O who can grieve that he hath entered in ? 114 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Baroness Burdett Coutts What mockery. Death, to let thy scythe-blade sweep Where was no power to reap 1 For what is here that thou couldst hope to slay ? Or how wrest wealth away, Long since by one who wist the worth thereof Translated into loye. And benedictions of vinnumbered years. And these fast-f alUng tears ? God's millionaire and hoarder of true gold ! Treasure that grows not old, Maugre thy forfeit laid on them that sleep. She doth inviolate keep : And this frail, venerable form, that Ues So low with hd-f ast eyes. Shall for thy darkening but the more appear Imperishably dear. MARTIN SPERLING 115 Martin Sperling With a thousand deaths behind him cast. And a thousand yet to brave, In the dark of dawn, in the biting blast. He clung to the slippery hulk at last. He slid with the sliding wave. He clung, he clambered, he fought his way Through the numbing snow and the blinding spray. Till he came — ^he came to the living three Dying amid the dead. Ah ! but they moaned to him, " Let us bide ! " " Nay ! " — for the Christ within him cried — " You come with me. Or I die with you." Thus he strove with the living few, Till they wearily Hfted each heavy head And came as the hero bid. Let the earth ring of it ! Let the sea sing of it ! That was what Martin SperUng said. And that was the thing he did. ii6 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Garibaldi [July 4th, 1907) Immortal patriot ! wert thou here to-day, Of what forlorn hope wouldst thou lead the van. Against what tyrant hurl thee to the fray. Strike what new fetters from the soul of man ? Wouldst thou not bid the nations now at length Break off the bondage of their mutual fear, Looking to freedom as their Ark of strength — Freedom, to friendship ever near and dear ? I seem to catch the far-off trumpet-call : " Think not by mere armipotence to win, And rush on greatness as men storm a wall ! For growth is of the silence from within. " A mightier thing than might makes big the time : E'en now with quickening hope the East is gray. And the long-labouring darkness of your chme Leaps with the dawn of a diviner day. " Arm for the conquest of mankind ! and know That all your emulous hosts by shore or sea Stand but for symbol and for outward show : The soul of power is magnanimity. " We strove of old, but not for self-applause, Loved not the hurtUng of war's iron wing ; We fought as champions of a righteous cause. To crown with peace our country and our king." TO GARIBALDI 117 Yea, noble spirit ! and is the hope too vast That, when the world grows weary of her pain, A mightier Victor may be crowned at last. And earth inaugurate Emmanuel's reign ? Il8 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman 'Mid all the clamour of conflicting cries So clave he to the cause he counted true. That e'en from lips, to whom it seemed not wise. Fell the rare tribute rendered but to few — " The head we doubted, but the heart we knew." Now to his memory let this record rise : " Here on the field of honour claim we can A fearless fighter, yet a foeless man." TO THE KING AT RUGBY 119 To the King at Rugby {July 3rd. 1909). Though fitting words on utterance vainly wait, For this thy gracious presencej Sir, to-day Within these walls, to greatness dedicate, A holier homage than of words we pay. For Temple's star on Rugby rose so fair Beyond the power of time or tears to dim, That loyalty to thee, how deep soe'er. Needs must be deeper that thou honourest him : Whose reverent service thou wilt scarce forget. What time, with age-enfeebled hand and slow. The crown of Empire on thy brows he set, Not, haply, unbeloved of thee : for lo ! He seemed his name's embodiment, a shrine Hewn of sheer truth, whose kindling from the skies Burned in his speech, and through his deeds did shine — Blest in both worlds who, living so, so dies 1 120 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE General Wolfe (September isth, 1909) A HUNDRED years and fifty Time doth tell Since up the heights of Abraham, this day, Wolfe with his heroes dared the pathless way, And won it, and heroically fell. Whence sprang to birth beyond the Atlantic swell England's great heritage. Yet, this side the spray. Of sculptured art or dedicative lay No record to renown him ! Is it well ? " Who runs ? — ^the foeman ? Then I die content." So spake he, though his heart's half-breathed desire Did to the Muses' gentler heights aspire. Now through the ages beacon-Uke he flames, By none out-splendoured in that firmament Whose galaxies of light are glorious names. THE DEATH OF KING EDWARD THE VH 121 The Death of King Edward the Vllth {May 20th, 1910) " Ta Se firl (SXeirofitva alwi/ia." Death cannot rob him of the crown he wore. So just a King, so manful and humane, That not in visible realms alone, but o'er The vmiversal heart he seemed to reign ; v And ahen eyes that ne'er beheld his face Find earth the lonelier for his empty place. Amid the splendours and the toils of State With lowliest need he knew to sympathise ; Without assuming greatness, he was great. Without the arrogance of wisdom, wise ; Ennobling his high office to the end As patriot peerless, yet the whole world's friend. Ah me ! with him commit we to the dust A smile that charmed to death presumptuous pride, A single faith that Envy's self might trust, A matchless aim, a hope that never died, A challenge that, pray Heaven, from throne to throne Shall peal till earth's last battle-trump be blown. Children of God shall they be called, I trow. Who make for peace beneath the travailing sun ; To whose inheritance eternal thou, Edward, Peace-maker, hast thy birthright won. With that subUmest benediction blest, Enshrined in all men's memory, take thy rest. 122 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE To Florence Nightingale Saint Florence, Lady of the lamp of love, What wouldst thou with earth's praise, whose puny spark, Matched with the flame thou filchedst from above. Scarce pricks the dark ? If the world's worship of thine angel-ways, If anguished lips that hailed thee half-divine. If djdng benedictions, count for praise. That praise is thine. Thy very name, that doth sweet music mean, Must sweeter grow with every passing year. Dear, while in sight, we deemed thee, but, unseen, How doubly dear ! HOLMAN HUNT 123 Holman Hunt O Cross, thy Shadow, and O World, thy Light- Darkly he limned them, seeing not the whole : Now is his vision orbed to perfect sight. Now is the shadow lifted from his soid ! 124 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE J. c. s. Arnold and Arnold, Stanley. Landor, Clough, Temple and Benson — servants of the lyre. Or teachers, lit with apostolic fire — Renown our Rugby. Souls of hero-stuff. Sons of Hephaistos, making plain the rough. Or purging the foul, ways, of sensual mire. Their very memory doth sweet breath suspire. Embalming the dead past ! It is enough. Yet mind I one, wont as their peer to walk Beneath yon elms, who tuned no songless harp. Still quickening the dull air with tranced talk. One soul with Wordsworth. Fain were I to see Within these walls some votive wreath to thee. Singer of sweet Traquhair, John Campbell Shairp. A LESSON FROM THE " TITANIC " 125 A Lesson from the " Titanic " See in great moments how we cast aside The fear-spun cloak of hatred, foe to foe — Poor outworn rags of rivalry and pride ! A soul-fraught vessel to destruction hurled Sets free the mighty heart-stream of the world Unlocks its frozen flow. Brute Nature triumphs ; yet some gain we reap From her remorseless doom, all said and done. If, deeper than the unfathomable deep Where that heroic remnant met their end. To the bed-rock of being we descend. Where the whole world is one. 126 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE General Booth Here was a man of Herculean might ! To hoary-headed eld from earliest youth He recked not but to wrestle for the Truth With every monstrous thing that loathes the Ught. He lifted from the mire and made rejoice Drink-sodden and depraved who lay supine : Intoxicating these with Heaven's new wine. He ruled them into righteousness. His voice Was Uke the sea-wind t when it blew abroad Men's souls in the salt wilderness astray. Deafened and blind with their own sound and spray. Came multitudinous rolling in to God ! Scant not his claim, nor grudge the title given, Nor mock the means wherewith (0 deed of worth ! ) He commandeered the very waste of earth To weld an Army of the Knights of Heaven. CORONATION DAY 127 Coronation Day (June 22nd, 1 911) Let us be reverent though with hearts elate ! We stand upon the brink of holy things. Beneath these human pageantries of State Veiling allegiance to the King of Kings, Whose power the Kings of earth impersonate. The time is long since tyranny's decease. And worthy homage whom we hail to-day ; Worthy that Sire whose memory must increase As more and more are counted kinghest they That guide their people into paths of peace — 'Gainst ignorance and vice that lead the van. Wherefore with soul uphfted, hps that sing. Beseech we Heaven-rr-the while, as mortals can. We crown the visible presence of our King — To crown the King that reigns within the man ! 128 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE On The Declaration of War August 2/\th, 1914 Not for passion or for power. Clean of hands, and calm of soul, England at this awful hour Bids her battle-thunders roll, That crown' d arrogance may quail And brute-force be backward hurled- Lest the hypocrite prevail. Lest a lie should win the world ; Lest she see the trustful weak Trampled by the perjured strong — That her arm may help to wreak Justice on red-handed wrong. Till the hierophants of fear Cease, beneath the darkened sun. To boom out in Europe's ear The grim gospel of the gun. So, to meet yon myriad host As we muster, land by land, Witness Heaven — no braggart boast — That for righteousness we stand ! In the dread impending hour Heedful of that warning word, " ' Not by might, and not by power — By My Spirit,' saith the Lord." THE CHARGE OF THE qth LANCERS 139 The Charge of the 9th Lancers -^ {August 24th, 1914) Fling the fame of it far and wide ! O Mother, arise and praise thy sons ! Wherever an English banner floats. Tell with pride Of the Lancers' ride Into the gaping thunder-throats And hell of the hidden guns t Toss the tale to the listening stars 1 Just a handful against a host. Hot to punish, athirst to save. Straight as bound for the hurdle-bars Rode they, reckless of least or most. Into the fierce mephitic breath Sputtering fury, dinning death ! Charger and rider one wild wave — Proud horse-billow with human crest — Hurled on the bellowing reef anear ! " Gallop, my beauties ! " and on they pressed. Fetlock to fetlock, breast by breast. Clothed with thunder, mocking at fear, Lightning-hooved at their lords' behest L Mother, arise and praise thy sons ! Hero-names of a thousand years Hail them Paladins, claim them peers. Be thou glad of thy dauntless ones ! TeU with pride Of that morning-tide, England honoured and death defied — How they rode for thee, side by side. To silence the hidden guns 1 130 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Marseillaise Sons of the Motherland, ari^e ! The day of glory dawns on high ! Up floats defiant to the skies The blood-stained flag of tyranny ! Do ye not hear how hard at hand The ruffian soldiets roar atid ramp ? Into your very midst they tramp Your sons to ravage and your land ! To arms, my countrymen ! Form up to meet the foe ! March on, march on, their tainted blood Shall make our furrows flow ! March, march we on, their tainted blood Shall make our furrows flow ! What would this recreant slavish herd Of traitors and confederate kings ? For whom were these vile chains prepared. For whom, long since, these iron rings ? For us, my comrades, ah ! the shame ! What fury in your breasts should burn ! 'Tis you they dare in thought to spurn. And, as of old, for bondsmen claim ! To arms, my countrymen ! &c. What ! we within our homes to cower While alien troops bid come and go ! What ! mercenary hordes have power. To lay our gallant warriors low ! Great God ! by caitiff -ha:nds shall we THE MARSEILLAISE 131 Beneath a conqueror's yoke be bowed, And take these vile oppressors proud As masters of our destiny ? To arms, my countrymen ! &c. Quake, tyrants, and ye traitors too. Scorned and abhorred of all mankind ! FuU soon their retribution due Your parricidal plots shall find ! Each man's a soldier you must fight. And, should our youthful heroes fall. From her own bosom earth would call A warrior-brood for battle dight 1 To arms, my countrymen ! &c. O love of country. Power divine. Guide and uphold our vengeful hand ! Freedom, dear Freedom, still combine With those who for thine honour stand ? Beneath our flags let Victory To wrccik thy burning wrongs arise. And, dying, may the foeman's eyes Thy triumph and our glory see ! To arms, my countrymen ! Form up to meet the foe ! March on, march on, their tainted blood Shall make our furrows flow ! March, march we on, their tainted blood Shall make our furrows flow ! SELECTED PAGEANT POEMS THE SHERBORNE PAGEANT 135 The Sherborne Pageant {Edward VI. Episode) Fons Limpidus O SHRINE of the silver waterspring, name renowned When Saxon and Dane strove mightily which should win. Once Queen of the west, and once by a King re- crowiied. Almost with the birth of England didst thou begin ! How reckon the tale of summers that o'er thee rolled Ere Roger the nwgh|ty upreared thy Norman hold ? O Sherborne, won from the wilderness who knoAsrswhen ? For the days that are past we bless thee. Mother of men ! What though thy cloisters have echoed to saints and kings. And Ealdhelm loved thee, and Alfred about thee played. From heroes perished a seed as of heroes springs. Thy crown is a crown of youth, and it doth not fade : And musing on many, thy later-born, through thee From fetters of self or of craven fear set free. Made holy of heart, and famous with sword or pen. For the days that are now we bless thee. Mother of men ! Nor lacketh there yet to comfort us saint and king ; The soul of our Alfred standeth at Grod's riglit h^d. Yet haply as sweet shall the name of Edward ring. Who trims thee, a lamp for ever to light the land. For us, we are born, we perish, our days are fpw ; Thy days are manyj to-day thou art bojrn anpw ; Immortal amidst our threescore years and tpn. For the ages to be we bless thee, ]\Iother of men ! 136 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Triumph Song Down the ocean of the ages, over seas that broke and boiled. Or where belts of tropic slumber lulled the dreaming halcyon's breast, Where the stabbing reef thrust upward, where the warping current foiled, We have tracked the good ship Sherborne to this haven of her rest. Oak of England, pine of Ida, for the poet's palm may vie ; Never sown was lustier timber than the axe of Eald- hehn feUed ; Never keel was straightlier fashioned, never mast so neared the sky ; Never canvass whitelier woven was by fairer gale impelled. Storm and stress of youth were over when once more she took the main ; By the star of truth she steered her, led by captains of renown ; She has thrid the shoals of knowledge, and again and yet again She shall flap the self-same pennon, she shall tread the surges down. Men of might who thronged her bulwarks, men whose fame the world knew well. Men whose fame the world ne'er heard of — and who knows the happier lot ? — TRIUMPH SONG 137' These and all who thought and wrought for her, or fought for her and fell, Are the nearer to our heart of heart because we name them not. With the tribute of our praises, words of worship and of love, Though not half be said or sung for her that in our breast we bore. With twelve hundred years beneath her, and the bend of heaven above, Down the ocean of the ages lo ! we launch her forth once more ! 138 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Dover Pageant Henry VHI. Episode Choragus Let 1^ be glad for the splendoiir and strength of Kings, T|if!, lords of armies, the doers of doughty things ! Chorus Apparelled in praise and mailed in might they, ride. And the time seems long till their lust be satisfied. Their laughter is as the sea's, their wi:a,th like fire. And who shall hinder them of their heart's desire ? They daunt the main, they measure the earth with a rod. They carry the scales of Doom and the sword of God ; The lives of a thousand men are a little thing. So they be sped of their mind's imagining ; They covet and have, they ask and take no nay, Forthe word in their mouth is mighty, to save or slay. Choragus Let us be glad for the labours of lowly men, The tillers of earth, the tamers of field and fen. The wielders of hod and hammer, of axe or wedge. The harbour-builders, the hands that delve or dredge ! Chorus They deepen the dyke and bridle the swelling brine. They set the beacon-tower on the hill to shine ; They fashion the limber oar, and shape the sail. They curve their keels to weather the roaring gale. They weather the roaring gale and know no fear. For little in life have they, to deem it dear ; DOVER PAGEANT i3ct Choragus They wrestle and swink and starve, and ask not why. And the days seem weary-long till they come to die. Chorus Let us now look, and ponder upon these things. The travail of lowly men, and the pomp of Eing^ ! Chorus Before the Final Tableau Bbitons and French, with hearts and hands Knit ye the league of the neighbour lands ! Doubts and fe%rs to the deep be hurled ! Freedom and friendship win the world ! We have coriquered each other enough to prove That that which must conquer at last is Iqve : For a loveless man is a lifeless clod, And the spirit of love is a spark from Qod : O Love-star, rise on the night, we pray. And lead, lead on the diviner day ! The nations have heard, tliey have heard a pall. The voice was the voice of the Lord of all : His mould is ready. His furnace hot. He hath men's hearts in the smelting-pot : For a time is coming — ah ! let it come ! — ■. When the tiger in man shall be quelled and dumb. When the shuttle of death shall ply no more 'Twixt the hands of the weaver whose wairp is war, And envy and hate no more have sway, For^the former things shall have passed away. 140 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Triumph Song All hail to thee, dauntless Dover, in ages beyond our ken. The dread of the wild sea-rover, the door of the lion's den ! New foes thou wert always facing, but never, we trust again Shall shrink from thine arm's embracing the vessels of outland men. No longer aloof we screen us, or fend from imagined foes ; What erst was a gulf between us a watery highway flows : Go, envious isolation, where that which begat thee goes. For the cloud 'twixt nation and nation is lifting, no more to close. But what of the word Our ears once heard That, or ever the ages cease. King Arthur himself should homage pay To a mightier one of wider sway. Whom, North, South, East, and West obey. Lover and Lord of Peace ? O winds, be whist, O waters, dumb ! The King is coming ! the King is come ! And ye that hearken the while we sing. Look up, and behold a wondrous thing ! For these her daughters from oversea. That follow in Dover's company. THE TRIUMPH SONG 141 Forty and four The wide world o'er, And mothers of mighty sons to be — These from the ends of the earth who came. Share her honour, and becir her name — With home-felt rapture around her throng. And thrill to the close of her triumph-song ! — fair and majestic haven, couched under the sea-cliffs white, That title upon thee graven, INVICTA, was thine of right. For one with the waves thy glory, and one with the winds thy might. And the web of thine endless story is woven, by day and night. Of ocean's infinite yearning, criss-crossed with the to- and-fro Of a thousand keels returning, a thousand that out- ward go ! From the frowning towers above thee to the fringing foam below To think of thee is to love thee, as all that have known thee know. 142 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Bury St. Edmunds The New Age Hark ! the music of the ages, Dirge and paean, masque and chime. Loves and hates — heroic rages — Deeds tyrannic, deaths sublime ! Slowly, sadly. Swiftly, madly. Swells the mighty march of time. Thrones and faiths are falling, changing. Vanishing like morning dew 1 Hark ! the unseen fingers ranging, Mingling false and mingling true — Joy and sorrow. Night and morrow — Weave the fugue of old and new. Still for ampler knowledge yeartiing. Life we think with discord teems. Only in the end discerning That which is from that which seems. Heaven will show it. Earth shall know it. When she wakens from her dreams. RETROSPECT 143 Retrospect Think gently of our moving show — Not idly and for naught Forgotten forms of long ago Within your vision brought. They passed not with the passing day. The great ones that are gone ; Their bodies fell beside the way. Their spirit leads us on. Who thriUs not to the sacred flame Of that sublime desire Which gave to earth a quenchless name To heaven a soul of fire ? Eyes dull to many a meaner thing Must yet behold with awe This " Sanctuary of the King " This " Cradle of the Law," Made glad as in a glass to see Around her crumbled shrine The men who lived for liberty, And knew the soul divine. Yes, there is something that abides Behind the dust and din. When history Uke a veil divides. And shows the form within. 144 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE From passion unto passion hurled, And tossed from pain to pain — The long delirium of a world That, waking, shall be sane. Turn from this arid crust of things. Loud power and flaunting wealth. To where aeonian water-springs Whisper of hidden health : Think amid clash of race and sect. The strife of caste and clan, " Thus doth the unseen Architect Evolve His perfect plan." So haply, as we turn the page Of dedicative art. These visions of a bygone age Shall vitalise the heart. YORK PAGEANT 145 York Pageant A.D. 597 Semi-Chorus I Where are the old gods' altars, where The primal powers of earth and air- Jove, and Apollo lord of light ? — Semp-Chorus II Gone, like the dreams of yester-night. Semi-Chorus I Where is the faith in which men died. Or lived, for love of the Crucified, Suffering gladly scathe and scorn ? — Semi-Chorus II Flown with the mists of yestermom. Semi-Chorus I What are the gods they bow before ? — Semi-Chorus II Saturn and Woden, Friga, Thor. Semi-Chorus I Trow ye, then, they are come to stay ? — Semi-Chorus II These shall be soon with yesterday. Semi-Chorus I Who be those that they welcome home ? — L 146 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Semi-Chorus II Daughters and sons set free from Rome, Happy, with all their tears and teen Past hke the dews of yester-e'en. Semi-Chorus I What are the tidings that they bring. Or what the note of their triumphing ? — Semi-Chorus II Death defeated, and sin's dark fear Blown to the winds of yester-year. WARWICK 147 Warwick Ave Atque Vale The revels o'er, the actors passed away. Of this fair pageant, say. This ebb and flow of human times and tides. What most with us abides ? Not the high deeds and legendary state That erst made Warwick great ; No, nor King Avon riding o'er the lea Mantled in poesy. And waving, as he floats by tower and town, His banner of renown. Nor all the dead re-risen, nor all the praise Of those heroic days : But rather that all life beneath the sun Is in aU ages one. And the deep sense that of each moving scene Ourselves a part have been. Where is the gulf of space, O soul of man, Too vast for thee to span ? Or when the time, how long soe'er forgot. When thou thyself wert not ? 148 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Colchester Chorus of Druids before the Final Tableau Choragus II What spoil of the spreading ages have ye to their tops who climb ? And where are the fruits once gathered, that hung from the boughs of time ? Choragus I Or ye that have ploughed Life's furrows, what wage of your work remains But longing and heavy labour, and earth-hued har- vest-stains ? Semi'Chorus I Since we in our dark delusion stood awed at the sun's ecUpse, New realms to the earth are added, new flight to the sea-borne ships, We have wrung from the hills their secrets, and har- nessed the hidden springs. And how if we chain the lightning, and challenge the air with wings ! Semi-Chorus II , Nay more, for of inward greatness what growth since the days began ! What Ught of emancipation now dawns in the face of man ! And softly we hear up-sweUing, but never again to cease. The hum of the swordless armies whose leader and lord is Peace. COLCHESTER 149 Choragus II Not idle, I wot, your boasting : this Mother, our hearts invoke. Hath sown thro' the earth fair cities, and love is their only yoke : Soon thrall and lord shall be brotheis — Choragus 1 But tell me of lord or thrall Who tastes of his life's fulfilment, ere foiled by the end of aU. Full Chorus Though hard be the strife before us with blindness of heart and brain, Though ages be heaped on ages ere the Slayer him- self be slain. The One that is All grows clearer to souls that have eyes to see, And nearer and ever nearer the Knowledge that maketh free. ISO WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE The Triumph Song Choragus I Arise, O Muse of Colchester, and strike a loud refrain ! Our hearts and lips are trembling to rehearse the triumph-strain ! Choragus II But the sum of all her triumphs can never be told in rhyme, For the Ages are her minstrels, and her melodist is Time. Semi-Chorus I See the mighty ones approaching ! let us greet them as they come, Though before their marching multitudes our elo- quence be dumb ! Look on Kymbeline the valiant. King of Britain's ancient state. By his son in soul out-splendoured through the Faith that conquers Fate ! Hail, Car^doc, foiled, defeated ! how through earth thy glory rings. From the bonds of Rome returning to proclaim the King of Kings ! Semi-Chorus II Lo ! where Claudius rides in triumph, while the thronging crowds make room. In his heart the lust of Uving, at his ear the hiss of doom ! See the pomp of priest and senate, see the oxen's steaming breathy THE TRIUMPH SONG 131 And the bay-bedizened maidens, and the captives led to death ! The dancers and the lictors see, with laurelled axe and rod. And the incense-teeming censers, as they hail him for a god ! Choragus II Such are Kings, who at their bidding deem the bolts of fate are hurled. And behold they are but levers in the hand that drives the world 1 Semi-Chorus I On Boadicea bend your gaze, that heart of Uving flame, The wonder of all woman-hood, and Rome's eternal shame 1 Nor moth of envy can corrupt, not tooth of time im- pair. Her seamless constancy of soul, her splendour of des- pair ! Semi-Chorus II Comes Coel, too, and Helena, afire with love divine. Whom brave Constantius took to bride, who bare him Constantine. Comes St. Os3^h and her Saxons, Ingvar, Ubba, and the Danes 1 Cometh Ecgwyn with King Edward crowned, and their attendant Thanes ! Choragus I But the spokes of time spin onward, and the Norman Lor(k are here. And their breath is fire before them, and they rule by force and fear. 152 WORDS BY THE WAYSIDE Full Chorus Of the monarchs and their minions see the proud pro- cession glide, Girt with monks and priests and barons in one seeth- ing human tide ! E'en as fierce conflicting waters chase each other to the main. Come Plantagenets, and Tudors, £ind the Stuart's baneful reign. Till bewildered eyes grow dizzy, as we view them from the verge ! Choragus I But from out the battling billows say what stately forms emerge, Tall as Tethys and her sea-nymphs ? Choragus II Can ye question who are these ? 'Tis Colcestria, Rose of Essex, and from many lands and seas. Those that spring from her, and cling to her, and share her race and name. Hither homing to their Mother's arms, her triumph to acclaim ! Full Chorus Ah ! we knit the words together, and we blend th^n, chord by chord. With the soiil-dividing harmonies from voice and viol poured. But the sum of all her triumphs can be never told in rhyme. For the Ages are her minstrels, and her melodist is Time ! BY THE SAME AUTHOR. John Lane. Out of the Silence, is. net The Training of the Imagfination. is. net. Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. Poems. Timoleon. Dux Redux. The Georgics of Virgil in English Verse. Longmans, Green & Co. The iEneid of Virgil in English Verse Teresa and other Poems. Chapman & Hall, Ltd. The Little Flowers of St. Francis in English Verse. O Soul of Mine ! is. net. The City of the Five Gates, is. net. Printed hy The Westminster Press, London, W. p-t^ C't^L' '-^ /l^^ '(/ ^ i-A-t*w -^U^ "^^ DATE DUE IrtferliPrfl "7 Loap CAVLORD '-*■■■ !?- v-^i'-'jif: ■■ "■■V ...,ni«.rV>'3 - J